From Mars, 360 degrees of color

[caption id="attachment_175204" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="A portion of color panorama from Mars Curiosity Rover shows one of its wheels and a gray patch of soil -- a scorch mark from the descent vehicles rockets. At the top left is Mt. Sharp. Image courtesy NASA."][/caption]

The Mars Curiosity Rover beamed back its first color panorama Thursday from the bottom of Gale Crater, and the image includes a glimpse of the three-mile-high mountain in the crater's center that the rover will climb during its two-year mission.

The photos come from Curiosity's "Mastcam," atop the one-ton rover's seven-foot mast. The 360-degree view is stitched together from 130 low-resolution "thumbnail" images, NASA says; they represent one eighth of the resolution the camera should eventually achieve.

[caption id="attachment_175197" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Curiosity Rovers first color panorama from Mars, courtesy NASA. Click on the image to see a larger version."][/caption]

Also visible in the image are patches of gray soil near the rover, marks left by the rockets of the rover's descent stage. That vehicle lowered the rover on tethers gently to the surface, then cut the cords and flew off to crash a safe distance away.

That was the climax of a white-knuckle landing Sunday. The rover screamed through the Martian atmosphere at about 1,000 mph, popped open a parachute 51 feet wide, then switched to the "jet pack" that carried it safely to the surface.

From space to the surface of Mars, the trip took seven minutes.

The rover is performing well, NASA reports, as scientists begin to check out and power up its 10 scientific instruments, as well as completing a geological map of the crater including the landing area. That will help them choose a path for the rover to the central mountain, dubbed Mt. Sharp.

The rover's mission is to determine whether Mars ever offered conditions suitable for life.

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